


Honey Milk

by Adeline_Hatter



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Cats, Conversations, F/M, Late Night Conversations, Research, Spoilers - Campaign 2 Episode 111, idk what this is okay, most likely canon divergence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:41:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26699983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Adeline_Hatter/pseuds/Adeline_Hatter
Summary: Late night conversations in the workshop, Veth comes to conclusions and Caleb helps.
Relationships: Nott | Veth Brenatto & Caleb Widogast, Nott | Veth Brenatto/Caleb Widogast
Comments: 5
Kudos: 55





	Honey Milk

She is woken by the press of warm china against her cheek, not hot enough to burn her but when Veth opens her eyes she watches the cup move away to rest on the table a little ways away and she slowly looks around her. 

The workshop, right she’d fallen asleep in here when she was… 

She starts up right, almost sending the cup flying as she looks at the smudged ink on the (subpar) paper she had fallen asleep on, fingers latching onto her face and coming away with black on the tips. 

“Great…” Veth yawns slowly, before there’s footsteps somewhere near her and she asks the question before she can stop herself, “What time is it?”

The footsteps pause, “Just past midnight.” Caleb’s voice rumbles from the bookshelf in the room and Veth turns to look at him and then at the clock on the wall, then down at the research now lying smudged and she can’t actually recall what she had been working on. 

An amber coloured cat purrs by her foot, hopping up and rubbing it’s head on her shoe and Veth reaches down to rub her hand between its ears, “Does this one have a name?”

“Salem.” He answers without looking and Veth picks up the cup steaming in front of her, “It’s honey milk.” Caleb moves in front of the slate on the wall, picking up a piece of chalk and writing out an equation before rubbing half of it away and shaking his head.

Veth invites Salem up onto her lap, stroking the cat as it snuggles down into her dress and seems content to just stay there as she watches Caleb to continue to mutter, sipping at the warm milk, it leaves a sweet taste in her mouth but reminds her of a drink her Mother would feed her before bed. 

Caleb is expressive when he works, still but his face will move accordingly as he mutters to himself, fingers tapping on the page of a book or in this case his leg in a steady rhythm like he’s looking for an instrument to play. 

Her mind compares them, she doesn’t mean for them to but Yeza when he was researching tended to be more still but expressive with his hands, big wide motions before he stuck his hands in his pockets, asked her for her opinion took her answer and continued on with a smile shot to her from the corner of his mouth before he would hit his breakthrough and ramble for a moment and then stop, waiting for her to say something- 

“Veth?” She tunes back in and Caleb hovers there in front of her, “Can you help me?” 

Veth blinks at him, scritches Salem one last time before setting the cup down and setting the cat down on the floor to stand up, stretching a bit, “Where are you stuck?” 

He watches her, eyebrows pinching a bit and she  _ knows  _ he is staring straight through her or anything she might say, “Are you alright?” 

_ No  _ “I’m okay.” 

He purses his lips together, before a hand slips onto her face like he used to do when she was Nott and he slides her hair out of her face, then sighs and rubs at a spot on her cheek with his thumb, “Chalk.” He explains but a small part of her wants it to be a lie. 

But she sort of has a good feeling about when he’s lying and this doesn’t meet any of those previous moments, “Okay, thanks.” 

“Is there anything you want to work on?” He asks, moving away and she watches him pick up the rag for erasing the board but stops when she releases a sound of alarm, “This doesn’t matter-” He taps his head, “-have it all up here.” 

She stares at him and he pauses, chalk against the board, ready to transcribe whatever she says, “I mean… I was working on a new chemical compound for…” She trails off, debating how to finish the thought.

“A bomb or?” He asks, reaching up to the tallest point he can reach on the slate and writing out  _ chemical compounds  _ before a numbered list starts and he gets to number five before he turns back to look at her. 

There is a small part of her that wants to believe in the affection that seems to lie in his gaze, but the more… Rational parts, the ones that deal with the equations and the logic squash it down a bit. 

Of course she's asked herself if she loves him like that or if she's just bored or nervous about going back or rebuilding her old life. 

But she knows the answer when Caleb says her name, even once and her heart crawls up her throat like she's falling in love for the first time. 

“Silver nitrate.” She begins, he writes it out and she walks over to the slate, grabbing the ladder and pulling it with her to climb up to be on the same level height wise as him, he offers the chalk and she takes it, continuing the list.

It takes her five minutes, then she yawns and finds the mug- Bizarrely still warm to the touch -being held out to her and she takes it, thanks Caleb and carries on. 

Equations fill her head slowly and it’s comforting, as Caleb pulls out the materials she asks for seemingly out of nowhere and yawns himself slowly, but still measures everything out for her and soon she’s talking but Caleb is the one taking the notes when usually she would be the person responsible for that. 

He offers up ideas and questions, but never tells her how to solve any of the equations she writes across the board. 

“I know what you're doing.” She says after a while, because she  _ does,  _ but that’s because she knows him.

Caleb loops an alchemical symbol into existence with a flip of his wrist, “I don’t know what you're talking about.” 

“Thank you.” She whispers it into the slate and chalk, ignoring the urge to turn and look at him properly, “For distracting me and getting me back on track.” 

He pauses next to her, “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Depends.” 

“On?” He prompts. 

Veth presses her lips together, “If you’ll answer my question or not.” Now she does turn to look at him, to study him and she finds him staring at the slate, chalk hovering. 

“What’s the question?” It’s a whisper, for a moment she thinks it’s full of affection, but within that same second she shakes her head and thinks herself foolish. 

He’s looking at her now, wide eyes and waiting to hear what she has to say… It’s a nice feeling because she knows he’s paying attention to her fully and when you have Caleb Widogast’s full attention it is a sight to behold. 

“If I…” She thinks about how to word it, how to go about it and runs her own piece of chalk through the motions for the alchemical symbol for alcohol, “If I wanted to leave Yeza, do you think the others would help me keep Luc?”

Caleb’s hand hovers against the slate, before it drops, “Keep how?” His voice is quiet and his head is tilting to look at her, eyes focusing fully on her own and she shrinks away a little, “Do you mean find a way that you could…” 

But he stops, moving, speaking and is for a moment still as a statue.

“Find a way that I could leave Yeza but not lose my son, do you think they would-” And she just barely keeps herself from choking on the air, because she hasn’t said it out loud before, “-help me do that?”

He stares at her, properly, fully, “Ja, ja I do.” 

It is said with so much assured confidence that she believes him, “Would you help me?”

He opens his lips, then closes them again, turning his gaze back to the slate as he answers, “You know I would.” 

That’s another thing she loves about Caleb, he is relentlessly honest when he wants to be and doesn’t use too many words when those moments come. 

Veth lets herself smile, just for a second, just for a moment. 

A plan was forming in her head now. 

“Thank you.” She whispers to herself, quietly, feeling the assuring presence that wraps around her leg a blanket, “For being my best friend Caleb.” 

He moves away, twisting on his heel and she can hear him pick up the cup, Caleb holds it out to her, “Finish this up and then we’ll go to bed.” 

She looks at him.

“If you want?”

Veth takes the cup, “Only if we sleep in your bed, mine’s too small for the both of us.” 

She downs what’s left of the honey milk and tries not to laugh as Caleb stares at her and blinks.

“Um…. Ja, sure.” His lips quirk, moving in a quick upturn, “Sure.” 

She smiles at him properly now, unabashedly and lets herself  _ want.  _


End file.
